Nursing home caught on hidden cam for mistreating patient
-
SINGAPORE: The Nightingale Nursing Home along Braddell Road has been suspended with effect from April 12, from admitting new patients, after some of its staff members were found to have mistreated a resident there.
The incident came to light after Channel NewsAsia alerted the Ministry of Health to a video, taken by a hidden camera on a patient's bedside.
The video showed an elderly woman patient sitting next to a bed without any clothes, while the ceiling fans in the room were on.
After a while, two staff members were shown lifting the patient and throwing her onto a bed.
In one footage, a staff member was shown slapping the patient after she moaned in pain.
The old lady has been a resident of the home for the past four years.
The nursing home said it has disciplined the staff involved, and placed additional measures such as getting senior staff to visit the wards and checking the conduct of its staff.
The measures also include holding regular meetings with patients and their family members.
In its reply to Channel NewsAsia, the Ministry of Health said: "There were significant lapses in the care standards provided to the patient in question.
"This should not have happened. There should have been tighter supervision of staff rendering care to vulnerable patients. Patients' dignity and respect must be upheld at all times".
A family member of the patient said: "Of course we are unhappy with the incident.
"We sent her there for the nurses to take care of her; we're disappointed with what happened.
"There are other old folks at the home. We hope by bringing this matter up, it will help to improve things at the home.
"We have since moved our mother to another nursing home".
The Ministry of Health said it will closely monitor the nursing home to ensure all additional measures required of it are properly implemented and subsequently ascertain if the suspension imposed on the home should be reviewed or further sanctions imposed.
It said: "Our inspectors regularly check that all nursing homes are properly maintained, keep their patient records in order and institute effective infection control measures.
"Nursing home operators are also required to maintain care standards on medication administration, fall prevention, housekeeping, etc.
"Nursing homes that do not meet the required standards or which require closer monitoring for any other reason will be subject to more regular audits. MOH will also guide them on how to improve their performance".
-CNA/wk -
本æ�¥è€�人家年迈了就应该安享晚年，看了这ç§�ç”»é�¢çœŸè®©äººå¿ƒé…¸ã€‚就算è€�了也有尊严，希望这些è™�待者下辈å�投胎为蟑螂。。。。。
-
Old woman abused in nursing home: How come staff not sacked?
-
Zero tolerance for violence at nursing homes
TWO years ago, Madam Irene Ong decided to set up closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras inside the wards of the two nursing homes that she runs.
The reason? She had received complaints from family members of the residents there that her staff had been handling the elderly residents in a rough way.
Sure enough, video footage showed some handlers mistreating the residents when transferring them from their chairs to their beds.
-- ST
-
fck them man ....
-
Proper checks important in taking care of elderly: nursing homes
SINGAPORE: Some nursing homes say proper supervision is important in taking care of elderly residents.
This follows the Ministry of Health's (MOH) move to suspend the Nightingale Nursing Home along Braddell Road from admitting new patients, after staff there were found to have mistreated a resident.
The incident came to light after Channel NewsAsia alerted the MOH to a video, taken by a hidden camera on a patient's bedside.
The video showed an elderly woman patient sitting next to a bed without any clothes while the ceiling fans in the room were switched on.
After a while, two staff members were shown lifting the patient and throwing her onto a bed.
In one footage, a staff member was shown slapping the patient after she moaned in pain.
The homes Channel NewsAsia spoke to said that they have measures in place to prevent such incidents from happening.
At the Windsor Convalescent Home, the management reminds its staff about their responsibility to the elderly.
Maggie Ng, manager of Windsor Convalescent Home, said: "We told them, 'this is not the way to treat an old patient'. You just imagine: your own parents, if they are being treated this way....You want yourself to be (treated) in this way in future? There will be a retribution."
The home has put in place several measures to help staff nurses perform their job.
The centre manager is on standby 24 hours should any such incident occur. New nurses are also put through a mentorship programme.
The nursing home has 50 patients aged between 50 and 90 years. It has 14 staff nurses, all of them foreign workers coming from the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
The job there is stressful, so it's important that staff nurses' well-being is taken care of.
Ms Maggie Ng said: "Usually, we will check with them (to see)whether they are ok. (We tell them that if they have) any problems, just come and see us. Don't let go of your frustrations on patients."
Louanne Rhomei, a nurse at Windsor Convalescent Home, said: "Even if we are very stressful at work, we just manage our anger. We are not angry with them (residents). We just tell them (nicely) even if they (say) bad words."
At the ECON nursing homes, regular checks are in place to ensure the well-being of patients. These include daily checks by the centre manager and staff nurses. Measures are also in place so that residents can provide constructive criticisms and feedback.
- CNA/ir -
I blew my top when I saw that video on the news. I want to know what sort of disciplinary action was taken on the Nightingale's Home staff and business owners. Disciplinaries action such as not allowing new patients intake is deem insufficent and too lienent an act.
MOH should take over the operation of the home and revoke the licences of the home's operators. And if revoked of licence is deemed too harsh, at least MOH should put in managers to clean up the act (at the business operator expenses) and to conduct more checks until the operators are deemed to be able to manage again. The business operator should also be fined heavily for their neligence.
The caretakers (presumbly foreigners from the video taken) should be punished before being sacked from the service.
-
We need checks and balance here too e.g ISO standard, exams for caregivers, A-B-C-D rating for nursing homes, officials from MOH to patrol these homes, stomp as an alternative means to expose bad behavior etc
-
she and the asst shd be sacked
and thrown outta the window the same manner
-
Simi 'disciplinary measures'? Just sack the offenders and get their embassy to deport them.
We do not need such filthy rubbish taking care of our people.
Oh, and fine the nursing home operator severely. And revoke their licence if so much as one more word of complaint is lodged against them.
-
if the home close down then those ah ma ah gongs living there how?
-
Nursing home probed "immediately" after complaint
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has said that it started its investigation on Nightingale Nursing Home immediately after receiving a video from Channel NewsAsia of the March 22 abuse at the home of an elderly resident.
The video was sent to Channel NewsAsia by a family member of the victim.
On April 12, while investigation was ongoing, it suspended new patient admissions, and asked the home to show cause within 14 days why its licence should not be revoked.
In late April, the home's management informed MOH of disciplinary action taken and measures to prevent recurrence of abuse, such as more frequent ward rounds by senior staff.
MOH imposed added measures including regular feedback reports from the home's patients and their families. It is still monitoring the home with regular unannounced inspections.
Nursing homes are regulated by the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act.
Penalties for flouting regulations include issuance of warning letters and suspension or revocation of licences.
In cases of serious abuse or maltreatment resulting in injury to residents, the offenders may be prosecuted.
MOH receives 12 to 15 complaints and feedback each year, and poor customer service is a common complaint.
It conducts regular inspections of all nursing homes to ensure compliance with licensing requirements.
- TODAY/wk -
It is easy to sack the rouge caregivers but not so easy to make sure this type of behavior do not repeat again.
-
Those who ill treat the old people MUST BE SACK.
And compensated the pain and sufferring the old people gone thru'.
It would be better if the home is closed down with immediate effect.
-
Must be those farking filipinos, most of them are in the healthcare industry.
-
Will they do the same thing if in JB?
-
Elderly woman had been complaining of abuse for 3 years
The man who had secretly recorded his mother's abuse at Nightingale Nursing Home revealed that he did so in response to her complaints about their treatment.
The 41-year-old, who identified himself as Mr Zhuo, told Shin Min Daily that of the four years his mother, Madam Bai, had stayed at the home, she had been complaining to him for about three years. This triggered his decision to place a hidden video camera disguised as a clock by his mother's bed at the home.
The resulting footage obtained was recorded in March and handed to MediaCorp Channel 8, before it was sent to the Ministry of Health (MOH) on 22 March.
Describing the recording, Zhuo said, "I saw that two nurses were helping my mother take a bath. They took off my mother's clothes and left her sitting in a chair for half an hour. In this time, a fan was blowing in her direction."
He added that from his observation, the nurses did not help Madam Bai put her clothes back on after her bath.
"Now I know why my mother is always saying she is cold in the mornings," he said.
However, more abuse cases have since been revealed.
At the Irene Nursing home and Serene Nursing Home, owner Irene Ong told The New Paper that she fired three foreign nursing staff from her centres over the past two years over incidents of abuse.
Ong said that she was informed by other employees that the staff members in question had been hitting the patients under their care in separate cases.
Having installed a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera system to monitor her staff and patients in both her nursing homes, Ong was able to check the recorded footage for evidence to confirm the reports.
She also said that she had reported one of the incidents to the authorities, but decided to take matters into her own hands.
"We really pity the patients," she said. "It is just not right to physically abuse them."
At the same time, she and other nursing home caretakers also shared that the challenge of looking after the elderly is significant, and can at times be frustrating for foreign staff who are usually not able to understand dialects, often the only languages spoken by elderly patients.
Ong, for example, told the same paper that she hires staff from Myanmar and the Philippines because she is unable to find any Singaporeans to take up the job.
Moreover, patients with dementia add a new dimension of difficulty for staff administering to them.
Nurse manager Jacqueline Voon, 40, from privately-run Paean Nursing Home, emphasised the need for particular patience when dealing with patients who have dementia.
"The difficulty is that they make a lot of noise and disturb (other patients)," she said. "If it gets out of hand, then we will refer (the patient) to the doctor to increase the dosage of their medication."
She also said that Paean takes preventive measures to handle abusive patients, such as ensuring that they do not have access to sharp objects.
Windsor Convalescent Home manager Maggie Ng, 55, added that her home has seen many cases of patients who punch and use their walking sticks to beat staff. Her employees often have no protection against such incidents as the patients often attack without warning.
Other elderly healthcare practitioners say that nursing staff need to be properly trained to deal with elderly patients, especially those with mental health issues.
Ng Wai Chong, 42, assistant director at the Tsao Foundation's Hua Mei Mobile Clinic, said, "Perhaps we need to take another look at our strategy in the long run for community care so that families don't have to send as many people to nursing homes."
The MOH said it conducts regular inspections of all nursing homes to ensure compliance with its mandatory licensing requirements.
Its inspectors check that the homes are properly maintained, keep their patient records in order and have effective infection control measures in place, among other factors.
Home operators are also pitted against care standards on medication administration, fall rates and housekeeping.
The ministry subjects homes that do not meet these standards to more regular audits, and provides guidance to them to improve their performance.
For reports of breach in care delivery or standards, the public can call the MOH hotline at 1800-225 4122.
-- Yahoo!
-
make cc tv compulsory
-
din the previous health minister gave a good suggestion?
send to JB!
-
what about ah ma
-
those filipinas
who are they? ought to publish their names and photos and shame them.
-
MOH to undertake holistic review of nursing homes
SINGAPORE: The Health Ministry will undertake a holistic review of the various systems and processes currently in place at nursing homes, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
This is to see if there is room for improvement and to prevent a recurrence of the recent abuse of a patient at the Nightingale Nursing Home.
Mr Gan was speaking to reporters after attending a dengue exhibition on Saturday.
A video, which showed Nightingale Nursing Home staff flinging a elderly woman onto a bed and slapping her on the mouth to keep her quiet, sparked an uproar among many Singaporeans, who expressed shock at the treatment of the patient at the nursing home.
The ministry said it takes a serious view of such incidents and will review the governance of nursing homes.
Mr Gan said: "From the MOH point of view, it's important for us to learn from this incident and that's why we'll take a holistic review on the various measures that we've put in place to see whether we can improve on the system, the surveillance or monitoring system, as well as how we can work closer with the nursing homes to advise them, to help them to put in place necessary measures to ensure that such incidents don't happen in the future."
Mr Gan was also sorry about what had happened.
He said: "I like to apologise to the family who have seen their mother subjected to the treatment at Nightingale Nursing Home. Such lapses are of grave concern to us."
And that is why the ministry suspended the nursing home since April, even as investigations were ongoing, said Mr Gan.
Mr Gan said that the "nursing home is now under surveillance and monitoring by the ministry" and that the ministry will "watch how the nursing home progresses from this point onwards." The ministry will also step up surveillance on the nursing home for a period of time.
With regard to the two staff members involved, he said one has left the nursing home, while the other was given a warning.
Mr Gan said the incident has been a learning lesson for his ministry, but assured Singaporeans that most nursing homes are safe with many measures to ensure proper care of patients.
The ministry is also grateful to MediaCorp for highlighting the situation, which allowed a full and proper investigation to be carried out.
-CNA/ac -
come here and slap our old people!
balek kampung!!!
-
Now saying sorry is very fashionable.
Let's move on.
Haiz.
-
its criminal offence to mistreat patients esp old folks who are helpless and weak....we, the citizens, demand the ministry to take them to prosecution...what happened if they are your parents? the head of that health care centre and all related staffs be sacked immediately for failure in their duty to check....we believe this is not the first time they mistreated the old folks....
we would want to see these foreign evil nurses deported immediately and banned them from entering singapore...
aside, due diligence on nursing procedures must be carried out...
Channel News Asia and the observant reporter must be awarded the top media prize for this year